Three Lessons On How To Build A Positive, Long-Term Reputation In Times Of Crisis
Coronavirus has captured the headlines for the past three months. It has received not only the complete attention of the World Health Organization (WHO) but also governments across six continents. While this crisis has yet to slow down, it has revealed lessons in building a long-term reputation for public and corporate communications professionals.
North and Southeast Asia were the first to be impacted. As communications measurement professionals located in this region, my team and I recently released case studies on some of the most reputable brands fighting coronavirus in Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand, based on mainstream media reporting and social media conversations on the novel coronavirus.
Here’s what today’s communications professionals can learn from these crisis management and reputation insights:
1. Build a positive reputation with a data-driven strategy.
It isn’t easy to create a combat plan when a crisis changes every day. But regularly updating your target audience with insights from the changing situation and follow-up mitigation steps can provide much-needed breathing space for the crisis plan.
An admirable example of an evolving data-driven crisis strategy that builds a better reputation comes from the Singapore government’s handling of coronavirus. WHO praised Singapore for leaving no stone unturned when reporting new cases and adopting a data-driven contact tracing strategy to identify others.
Data analysis of developing crises also helps people and organizations take timely actions to put the right policies in place for the future. While observing emerging data on the rising number of cases in the U.K., the government recently passed the Health Protection (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020 to help authorities with the power to restrict people at risk of spreading the virus enforce appropriate quarantine procedures.
As communicators keep a close eye on developing data, they should not feel any shame in accepting that a crisis is still unfolding and that the mitigation plan comes from emerging insights. Early but confident communication on a growing crisis signals that you are authentic in the way you reach out to your audience. Sharing learnings from past data on a similar crisis also assist in creating a robust combat plan that positively impacts reputation.
2. Stick to the core of your internal culture.
Companies that adapt their offerings to suit a crisis can boost their reputation for the long-term. As a result, employees feel that they are helping with the crisis situation and stand tall with their companies.
Such a positive culture was displayed in heaps by the ride-hailing services provided by Grab, Gojek and Didi, which offered to drive home health care workers fighting coronavirus. While ride-hailing drivers are technically part of these companies, even they felt a sense of purpose helping health care workers return home to their loved ones after another hard day of fighting the crisis.
Airlines are losing billions of dollars amid this crisis. AirAsia relied on their safety procedures and disciplined cabin crew to bring home stranded nationals from Wuhan. Thinking about outside communities that may not be part of your target audience and providing assistance through your products or services not only boosts employee morale but also generates a positive momentum within your organizational culture.
Inspiring leadership is equally important to the core of your internal culture. In the government sector, Singapore’s leadership displayed solidarity in its culture by offering a bonus for public officers on the front lines fighting the crisis. At the same time, the members of the parliament took one-month pay cuts. Significant steps by leadership teams can help inject a wave of positivity within the organization and improve the company’s reputation in the eyes of its employees.
3. Put the customer’s interests first.
Reputable companies find creative ways to meet their end goal of putting customers first, even during times of crisis. They often draw from previous crisis experiences that reflect resilience.
For example, KFC, McDonald’s and Starbucks offered “contactless” pickup and delivery to ensure that customers can still enjoy their food services without risking their health and safety. Drawing resilient learnings from war and epidemics, JD.com leveraged emerging technologies to employ drones to deliver groceries to the affected areas. Keeping customers first, in turn, helps companies attain top-of-mind status among their customers. It also increases customer interaction and helps companies further understand customer challenges during a crisis.
With the potential vaccine at least a year away, controlling the coronavirus outbreak boils down to governments and corporations working together. But, as with any crisis, those who develop an evolving, data-driven crisis strategy, strong internal culture and customer-first delivery will not only help society cope better but also emerge with a positive reputation after the dust settles.
Post written by Prashant Saxena Head of Insights, Asia at Isentia; Vice-chair, APAC for AMEC (International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication) and published on Forbes: https://bit.ly/3bE8xlp
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The C-suite is now expected to be the face of the brand, the primary storyteller, and a digital thought leader. But despite the pressure to post more, engagement on executive content is plummeting.
Why? Because in a feed flooded with AI-generated thought leadership and corporate updates, audiences have developed a "BS detector." They are scrolling past and looking for something else.
In our recent "Future of Measurement" webinar, Prashant Saxena, VP of Revenue & Insights, SEA, pinpointed that it’s not about posting more, but about getting real. Being authentic is a daily ritual, it’s not just a buzzword.
Where do C-Suite leaders go wrong?
Why do so many capable leaders struggle to build traction on LinkedIn?
1. The "corporate bot" syndrome
Many executives treat LinkedIn like a press release distribution channel. Their posts are perfectly grammatically correct, sanitized by three layers of PR approval, and utterly devoid of personality. If your post sounds like it could have been written by any CEO in any industry, it’s not doing its job.
2. Delegating too much
It is standard practice for executives to have ghostwriters. However, the mistake lies in delegating the perspective. When a leader completely hands off their LinkedIn presence to a team without providing personal voice notes, opinions, or raw thoughts, the content feels hollow. Audiences waste no time in picking up how artificial something reads or sounds.
3. Broadcasting, not engaging
Many "Creator CXOs" view social media as a megaphone rather than a telephone. They drop a piece of "thought leadership" and leave. They don't reply to comments, they don't engage with other creators, and they don't show up in the messy, human conversations happening in the comments section.
The ritual of being authentic: A 3-step framework
During the webinar, Prashant broke down the solution into a "daily ritual of authenticity." It’s a practical framework to move from being a "corporate bot" to "trusted leader."
1. Signal the Right Values: Values mean more than titles
The Shift: Instead of sharing company wins ("We hit Q3 targets!"), share the why behind the decisions.
The Tactic: When you post about a new initiative, explain the difficult trade-offs you faced or the core value that drove the decision. What was the moral compass of the decision made?
2. Share the "Behind-the-Scenes": Perfection is intimidating; progress is inspiring.
The Shift: Move away from only posting the "highlight reel."
The Tactic: Share the messy middle. Did a product launch almost fail? Did you have to pivot your strategy? Posting about a challenge you are currently navigating (or recently overcame) invites empathy and engagement that a polished success story never will.
3. Leverage Third-Party Proof Points: Validation is stronger when it comes from others.
The Shift: Stop being the only one talking about how great your company is.
The Tactic: Elevate the voices of your employees, customers, and partners. Repost an employee’s win with your personal commentary on why you’re proud of them. It shows you are listening and that your leadership has a tangible impact on real people.
C-Suite leaders who “get it”
Who is actually doing this well? Here are a few leaders who have mastered the art of engagement by being human first and executives second.
1. Satya Nadella (CEO, Microsoft)
Why he wins: Signaling values. Satya rarely posts generic corporate updates. His content is deeply philosophical and tied to his core mission of empathy and empowerment. Even when discussing AI or cloud computing, he frames it through the lens of human impact. He doesn't just sell Microsoft; he sells a worldview that people want to align with.
2. Melanie Perkins (CEO, Canva)
Why she wins: Behind-the-Scenes reality. Melanie is famous for sharing the rejection letters and the "no's" she received in the early days of Canva. By sharing the struggle, she makes her massive success feel earned and relatable. She frequently highlights the culture and the team (the "Canvanauts") rather than just her own accolades.
3. Ryan Holmes (Founder, Hootsuite)
Why he wins: Third-party proof & engagement. Ryan understands the platform mechanics. He uses polls, asks questions, and champions other entrepreneurs. He frequently shines a spotlight on industry trends that validate his company's mission without being overtly salesy. He acts as a curator of industry wisdom.
The bottom line
As Prashant Saxena highlighted, reputation is a downstream outcome of an upstream habit.
If you want to fix your engagement, sounding like a "Creator CXO” does a lot of harm to one’s personal brand. Starting to sound like a person who happens to be a CXO would be so much better.
Interested in viewing the whole recording? Watch our webinar here.
Alternatively, contact our team to learn more insights into meaningful measurement, KPIs and communicating using the right dataset.
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Blog
Why is CXO engagement dropping (and how to fix it)?
We explore how CXOs can move from a corporate bot to a trusted leader and improve their personal branding online.
The media landscape is accelerating. In an era where influence is ephemeral and every angle demands instant comprehension, PR and communications professionals require more than generic technology—they need intelligence engineered for their specific challenges.
Isentia is proud to introduce Lumina, a groundbreaking suite of intelligent AI tools. Lumina has been trained from the ground up on the complex workflows and realities of modern communications and public affairs. It is explicitly designed to shift professionals from passive media monitoring back into the role of strategic leaders and pacesetters.
“The PR, Comms and Public Affairs sectors have been experimenting with AI, but most tools have not been built with their real challenges in mind.” said Joanna Arnold, CEO of Pulsar Group.
“Lumina is different; it is the first intelligence suite designed around how narratives actually form today, combining human credibility signals with machine-level analysis. It helps teams understand how stories evolve, filter out noise and respond with context and confidence to crises and opportunities.”
Setting a new standard for PR intelligence
Lumina is centered on empowering, not replacing, the human element of communications strategy. This suite is purpose-built to help PR, Comms, and Public Affairs professionals significantly improve productivity, enhance message clarity, and facilitate early risk detection.
Lumina enables communicators to:
Understand & Interpret: Move beyond basic alerts to strategically map the trajectory and spread of narrative evolution.
Focus & Personalise: Achieve the clarity necessary to execute strategic action before critical moments pass.
We are launching the Lumina suite by making our first module immediately available: Stories & Perspectives.
In the current fragmented, multi-channel media environment, communications professionals need to be able to instantly perceive not just how a story is growing, but also how it is being perceived across different stakeholder groups.
Stories & Perspectives organizes raw media mentions into clustered, cohesive Stories, and the Perspectives that exist within each, reflecting distinct media, audience, and public affairs angles. This unique functionality allows users to:
Rise above the noise: Instantly identify which high-level topics are gaining momentum or fading from attention.
Get to the detail, fast: Uncover the influential voices, niche communities, and specific channels actively shaping the narrative.
Catch the pivot point: Precisely identify the moment a story shifts—from a strategic opportunity to a reputation risk—or when a new key opinion former begins guiding the conversation.
"Media isn’t a stream of mentions," said Kyle Lindsay, Head of Product at Pulsar Group. "But rather a living system of stories shaped by competing perspectives. When you can see those structures clearly, you gain the ability to understand issues as they form, anticipate how they’ll evolve, and act with precision. That’s what we mean when we talk about AI built for communicators, and that's what an off-the-shelf LLM can't give you."
The Lumina Roadmap: AI tools for the future of comms
The launch of Stories & Perspectives is the first release of many. Over the upcoming months, we will systematically roll out the full Lumina roadmap, introducing a comprehensive set of AI tools engineered to handle every phase of the communications lifecycle.
The full Lumina suite will soon incorporate:
Curated media summaries: AI-driven daily summaries customized specifically to the priorities of senior leadership, highlighting only the most relevant stories.
Reputation analysis: Advanced measurement tracking how critical themes like ethics, innovation, and leadership are statistically shaping corporate perception.
Press release & media relations assistant: Tools designed to accelerate content creation and craft hyper-focused, personalized pitches that reach the precise contacts faster.
Predictive intelligence layer: Technology engineered to track and anticipate story momentum and strategic change before the window of opportunity closes.
Intelligent agents: Background agents continuously scanning all media channels for emerging key spokespeople and previously undetected reputation risks.
Enhanced audio, broadcast & crisis detection: Complete, real-time oversight of all channels—including audio and broadcast—enabling rapid context building and optimal crisis response delivery.
Want to harness the power of Lumina AI for your PR, Comms, or Public Affairs team? .
Complete the form below to register your interest.
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Blog
Announcing Lumina: The purpose-built AI suite for PR, Comms, and Public Affairs
An intelligent suite of AI tools trained on the language, workflows, and realities of modern public relations and communications.
